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Playground Tales
Playground Tales is a short film that aired on Nickelodeon in 1997, written and directed by Elliot Strange. It's a predecessor to The Halloween Kids (TV series), containing a number of characters that would turn up in that show. The film was originally intended to be shown before Good Burger in theaters, but it got replaced by the Action League Now episode "Rock-a-Big Baby" under unknown circumstances. Plot The pilot centers on a septet of kids, unofficially dubbed the Shocking Seven. It consists of Julie, the leader, a punk with a heart of gold, Victor, a unibrowed mischievous boy, Corky, a jittery cowardly boy, Brie, a bubbly naive girl who's the victim of sarcastic remarks from Monique, a cynic, the lingo-spouting laid back Bernadette, and the spunky tomboyish Morgan. Ms. Appleworth is a no nonsense disciplinarian who enforces her rules to a tee. Her father comes to visit and she decides to demonstrate her effectiveness by giving him a tour around the school. While going through the playground, Appleworth comes across Julie and her friends and assumes the worst. Julie had acquired what looks to be a cherry bomb, but she hides it long enough for Appleworth's father to lead her away. Appleworth continuously spies on the seven, noticing that they have explosives on them and seeks to expose them. Appleworth's attempts at exposing the kids leads to her accidentally injuring her father and ignoring ongoing misdemeanors. After she catches Brie holding the cherry bomb, she violently knocks her down and snatches it. Brie begins crying and Appleworth's father scolds her for her behavior. Appleworth stresses that she was trying to confiscate lethal materials, but Julie reveals that the explosives were actually just candy; she didn't reveal it at first because Appleworth would've just taken it regardless, calling back to an earlier scene where she forcibly stole a student's snack. Appleworth's father leaves, with he and her on bad terms and Julie and co. leave for class. Appleworth picks up a dropped piece of candy. As she takes a bite it's revealed to be a piece of dynamite, though she writes it off as merely having a bad taste. Cast * Billy West: Victor * Marcus Toji: Corky * Francesca Marie Smith: Julie * Ulysses Cuadra: Morgan * Olivia Hack: Bernadette * Anndi McAfee: Monique * Danielle Judovits: Brie * Julie Brown: Ms. Appleworth * Charles Rocket: Ms. Appleworth's dad Trivia * A number of the voice actors present in the short have lent their voices to other Nick shows, particularly Hey Arnold!. Supposedly, the use of those actors was done to cut corners on the production cost. Strange intended to use actors that were either unknown or fell off the radar. * Morgan is voiced by a male voice actor. * Strange's intention to have this shown before Good Burger was an attempt at maintaining a presence in cinema, where he would produce pre-movie shorts for future Nickelodeon movies; this wound up not coming to fruition. Reportedly, this was re-pitched as an opening short to Cry Baby Lane when it was originally conceived as a full-length movie.